Thursday, 3 May 2012

Three views for Christ: 3

The third and final vision for the Christian Formation of young people which I want to speak about is one for which I can only give a brief scetch: creating spirituality centres. Now I realise that these two words, 'Spirituality Centre', can make us think in terms of laberinths, enneagrams and ceramic therapy; what I am thinking of when I say 'Spirituality Centres' are places of formation which nurture and establish prayer in young peoples lives. Such centres then would be given over to helping young people to pray, to discover and establish a basic foundation to prayer in their lives, and to discover the richness of the Church's tradition in this regard by being properly introduced to some of the Church's classical spiritualities - Carmelite, Ignatian, monastic, family etc. This could be done through short or extended retreats and through personal Spiritual Direction. 
I know of very few such places and I really do believe that there is a need for them. Two such 'centres' which come to mind are:
The Diocesan Centre of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Valladolid, Spain, http://www.centrodeespiritualidad.org/. You will need some Spanish here.
The Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer in Scotland, http://www.craiglodge.org/, which has enabled so many young people to grow in Christ.
I'm sure that there are other Centres which you could name - we need them. 

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